hi guys my name is Jack and today we are going to review with you another horrible case and before starting the story I want to apologize for my English I'm not a native speaker but I'm still trying for you thanks for understanding fateful morning wake up is anyone alive in this house Judy cheerfully entered the home of her sister Linda Slayton the morning of September 4th was normal but something seemed off Judy often visited her nephews and today she came to their home as usual a cup of hot coffee and a friendly conversation with her
sister was how their day usually began where are you little Slackers Judy smiled peering into the room of her nephews who were sleepily rubbing their eyes she was surprised to see Linda still asleep for she usually woke up before the boys left for school Judy left the house and noticed that the window in her sister's room was wide open and one of the curtains was missing it was strange why aren't you in school yet is your mom sick why is she still sleeping Judy walked restlessly toward her sister's bedroom Linda Slayton I want to see
you Judy knocked on the door but there was no answer the next instant the sight that came into view made her heart sink her sister's body lay across the bed her head hanging to the floor the young woman was half undressed and a wire hanger was wrapped around her neck there was no sign of a struggle in the room the closet was open but otherwise everything looked normal Linda's things lying in their places upon seeing her sister's body Judy screamed and the janitor working outside called the police the police arrived and asked the children to
leave the house which had now become a crime scene Jeff was able to walk past his mother's room without without looking at her body Tim on the other hand looked into the room and saw his mother dead the boys were sent to their grandparents house for the duration of the investigation that fateful morning was the beginning of a mysterious and dark story it changed their lives forever Linda Slayton was born on a spring day March 8th 1950 the girl dreamed of a large and happy family her fate however did not turn out the way she
wanted at the age of 19 Linda entered into marriage with Frank Slayton at this age she was already a Mother 3 years before the wedding the couple had their first son Jeffrey and after another year a younger son Timothy was born and only after another year Linda managed to convince the father of their children Frank to become a family but alas this marriage turned out to be far from her expectations Frank after becoming a husband and father disapp appointed his family he turned out to be a cruel man his outbursts of anger regularly fell on
his wife and sons Jeff and Tim's memories of their childhood were filled with nightmares their father was an aggressive alcoholic who kept his family in suspense Linda often thought about divorce but fear and addiction prevented her from taking that step however in 1974 after nine long years of marriage she gathered the last vestiges of strength and determination leaving behind the hell that was their family Linda took her sons and left Frank Slayton it was the first step towards a new life where Linda hoped she could give her sons the security and happiness they had been
denied for so long she didn't yet know the trials that lay ahead including that terrible day that became fateful for her family after the divorce Linda and her two children lived at 303 North Brunell Parkway in Lakeland Florida which was one of poke County's densely populated cities in 1981 it was a place where business was booming and new residential neighborhoods were being built on every corner these were mostly duplexes where large families settled Lakeland with its abundance of Lawns and Greenery was very attractive to Residents one of the many duplex homes belonged to the Slayton
family despite this they didn't stay in it for long it is known that Linda and her sons moved to Florida from Hart Cella Alabama just two weeks before the horrific crime what could have led to such a gruesome tragedy perhaps Linda brought not only her children with her but also dark issues from her past after her divorce Linda Slayton began a new life as a single mom she strived to give her children everything she could torn between work and home responsibilities Linda didn't have a car so her sons either walked to school or neighbors drove
them despite the hardships Linda never gave up and tried to provide her children children with everything they needed in addition to school activities the boys also participated in the soccer section but since it was not always easy to get there without a car Coach Joe became their savior he regularly drove the brothers from home to the stadium and back a week before the tragic events on September 4th Linda was actively preparing for her mother's move she was sure that a woman living with them would be able to help Linda cope with the daily household chores
and create an atmosphere of comfort and family Harmony in the house on the evening of September 3rd Jeff returned home from a workout he felt an empty feeling in his stomach but there was no food in the house so he decided to go to his grandmother's house when he returned around 9:30 p.m. his brother and mother were not in the house the boy turned on the TV in an attempt to distract himself but his anxious thoughts did not leave him the quarrel with his mother which had occurred the day before did not give him peace
he tried to put it out of his mind but when he came home and did not find his relatives he began to feel a strange longing usually at this time their house was in a state of excitement Linda's mother was cooking dinner in the kitchen the smell of delicious food filling the house and her younger brother Tim was merrily hanging around sometimes running up to Jeff hoping for a conversation but sensing his brother's displeasure he ran back to his mother these moments were repeated several times until everyone was gathered around the table for dinner around
11:30 p.m. the noise and laughter of family members in the hallway interrupted Jeff's musings his heart began to beat more calmly his mother and brother came home and Jeff finally went back to watching the movie that was coming to an end at dinner Linda talked about going to spend the evening with the neighbors and playing cards but before that she decided to do some housework when his younger brother Tim went went to bed Jeff stayed and helped his mom wash the dishes before going to bed he decided to stop by her room to apologize for
the fight that happened between them earlier Jeff remembers that his last words were I love you Mom I'll see you tomorrow if only he had known that those words would be the last words he was able to say to his mother September 4th 1981 was a tragic day in the lives of Two Brothers 12-year-old Tim and 15-year-old Jeff it was then on that terrible day that they found their mother Linda Slayton dead in her bed at the time Linda was only 31 years old who could have committed such horrific cruelty against the mother of two
defenseless children was it someone they knew or was Linda the victim of a random attack after Jeff and Tim left for their grandmother's house Sergeant Edgar picket of the Lakeland Police Department arrived on the scene he was the first detective to begin investigating this terrible tragedy as soon as soon as he arrived police officers reporters and ambulances streamed to the house the place was cordoned off Yellow Tape reading crime scene no trespassing was stretched around the house Sergeant picket was the first to uncover the most important piece of evidence in the case on a window
where the curtain was missing he discovered a palm print that did not belong to the murdered Linda this footprint could have been an important DNA sample but at the time DNA testing was not yet widespread to find out the exact cause of Linda's death her body was sent for an autopsy it revealed bruises on her shoulders arms and neck the fact that she was half naked indicated a possible rape after a detailed autopsy it became clear that Linda had first been severely beaten then abused and then strangled with a hanger from her own closet this
horrific scenario became the starting point of the investigation but there were still many questions to solve the mystery of Linda slayton's murder the police decided to go through the genealogical tree of the Slayton family the first suspect turned out to be Linda's ex-husband Frank Slayton information about him indicated that he was a violent and aggressive man who often abused his wife and children and showed no concern for the family quite expectedly Frank immediately came under the suspicion of the police he was detained for questioning but it soon became clear that he was in Alabama on
the night of the murder nevertheless the police did not rule him out as a suspect the second suspect was Linda's eldest son Jeff on the day before the murder he and his mother had a serious argument according to Witnesses the relationship between Linda and her son had been strained recently Jeff as the eldest child in the family had experienced the full brunt of living with an abusive father and then with his mother who was raising his brothers alone their frequent conflicts were in plain sight but Jeff always tried to to smooth over quarrels and make
peace with his mother just as he did the night before Linda's murder the police conducted two polygraph tests for Jeff and both times the results were negative thus eliminating him from the list of suspects third on the suspect list was Linda's boyfriend whose name has not been released this white man was a close friend of Linda's and often socialized with her children but polygraph testing revealed nothing suspicious and police were forced to clear him of suspicious after Linda's funeral the family gradually began to get the brother's lives back to normal the boys went back to
school and tried to suppress in their minds the horrible event that had occurred at 303 North Brunell Parkway Tim continued to attend soccer practice and he always felt support from his team and coaches Coach Joe stayed true to his promise and continued to give Tim rides home after practice a month after the tragedy Tim put a picture of of the team and Coach by his bed weeks turned to weeks months turned to years but the case of Linda's murder remained unsolved the Slayton Brothers had to accept the hard reality of their new life their mother
had been murdered and only their grandparents Clarence and Margaret Harris were left with them to support them through this difficult time it had been a full 17 years since the horrific murder of Linda Slayton the years have passed and the boys who lost their mother have grown into grown men full of love and care for their own families both brothers started families and Jeff had two children however he never forgot that last night I didn't hear anything at all even the neighbors claimed they didn't hear anything suspicious that night it weighs heavily on me he
often repeated in conversation with his loved ones sometimes sitting in front of the television waiting for dinner while his wife fussed in the kitchen and his children ran around him Jeff would catch a glimpse of the past at such moments he was taken back to his childhood home to the last evening with his mother the unsettling feelings that had gripped him that last evening seemed to foretell a horror that would change his life forever the voices of his children and wife each time as a rescue brought Jeff back to reality despite the successful lives the
brothers have built they have never stopped following the investigation and have worked hard to keep the case alive they regularly returned to Lakeland to see if there was any news in their mother's case in an interview Tim said no matter how many investigators are replaced we always remind them that we are waiting to find whoever killed our mom the buron is on us and I can't let it go in 2001 detectives finally had a new thread that could lead to the solution of this long-standing mystery in the same neighborhood where Linda was murdered police arrested
a man named Jimmy olmer who had similar mannerisms to Linda's killer he was charged with the attempted murder of a little girl he had tried to pull through the window of her room the police began to scrutinize his connections and Alibis and discovered that he was now already sentenced to 80 years in prison for other crimes for the police he became the prime suspect however a small problem arose by that time Jimmy had already passed away and it was impossible to conduct d testing however Jimmy's mother agreed to provide a sample of her DNA unfortunately
the results did not match the sample found at Linda's murder scene the investigation again went unanswered in 1998 the investigator who had been looking into Linda slayton's murder Edgar picket resigned and was replaced by a new detective Brad Grace Grace discovered an unidentified DNA sample that had been collected at the crime scene back in 1981 he decided to send that sample to the state's largest laboratory the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to try to identify Linda's killer from the DNA by 1999 the department already had the means to conduct such tests and detective Grace sprang
into action he reviewed the list of suspects and decided to collect DNA samples from each of them in 2001 he was confident that he could find the perpetrator through his DNA he first contacted the Slayton brothers and asked them to submit DNA samples for comparison with samples found at the crime scene the results of the analysis completely ruled the brothers out as suspects detective Grace then contacted Linda's ex-husband Frank Slayton Frank after Linda's death had re-evaluated his life and was living a good life Frank voluntarily gave up his DNA samples again no matches were found
in 2005 Grace submitted DNA samples from the unknown perpetrator to the FBI to be tested against the data in the federal database these comparisons were made regularly but were inconclusive eventually 17 years after Linda slayton's murder detective Grace retired and was replaced by detectives Tammy Hathcock and Russell Hurley after three more years of Investigation Tammy Hathcock learned of a new DNA recognition technology developed at the Florida Department of Law Enforcement she sent a DNA sample from the crime scene to expert Cecil Moore using a genealogical database and other documents Cecil Moore compiled a family tree
that led to the person suspected of killing Linda Slayton this moment proved to be a turning point in the investigation and a shocking one for the Slayton Brothers the face of the killer was in one of the photographs in Tim's bedroom that man turned out to be Joseph Clinton Mills also known as coach Joe police began investigating Mill's background and found that he had been charged with grand Larsen and forging a will but was not convicted of it his fingerprints and palm prints were kept in police databases to establish Joseph mills's guilt police had to
match his DNA to that found at the scene of Linda slayton's murder detectives decided to obtain a sample of mills's DNA without his knowledge the veracity of this information is unknown but this is the version that is included in the case police collected trash from a dumpster at mills's house and found a Band-Aid with traces of blood on it this was sent for examination at this time detectives were investigating the suspect's background Joseph Mills had spent most of his life in the town of kettman which is only 30 minutes from the crime scene he had
a family children and grandchildren 2 weeks later the lab's response came back the DNA from Linda slayton's murder scene matched Joseph Mill's DNA this result became a key piece of evidence in the case and Joseph Ms was arrested and charged with the murder of L into Slayton in December 2019 Joseph mels was arrested and taken to police for questioning he was only 20 years old at the time of Linda slayton's murder in 1981 detectives conducted an interview with Mills at the time but it was done over the phone and he did not become a suspect
in the murder now after years of Investigation it was impossible for Mills to deny his involvement in the crime according to his testimony on the night of the murder he had come to Linda's home with her consent for sexual relations but detectives doubted his version they speculated that Mills had been watching Linda for some time because he regularly drove her children to practice according to investigators version after the coach brought the boy home from practice he waited until the house was empty before sneaking into Linda's room through a window hiding in a closet he waited
until she was alone in the room he then came out of hiding beat and abused Linda and strangled her with with a wire hanger from her own closet at trial Joseph mels was found guilty of first-degree murder and rape the investigation and trial finally brought long awaited Justice to this horrific crime that had gone unsolved for years the sons of the murdered woman were still left in shock and could not understand what motivated Joseph to kill their mother the court hearing was tense Linda slayton's children Tim and Jeff sat on a spectator bench defending the
memory of their mother at the center of attention was Joseph Clinton Mills Coach Joe this man who once seemed like a role model sat in an accusatory cage his gaze was cold and indifferent as if nothing had happened Tim Slayton the oldest of the brothers looked at the man he had once revered and now saw in him the face of evil the fire of indignation burned in Tim's eyes and he jumped to his feet turning to Joseph why I just want to understand why Joe why why did you kill our mom why did you take
her away from us we were so happy Mills only mumbled back I'm a good man the Slayton family never received an apology or remorse from him probably even the killer himself had a hard time explaining his actions this came as a shock to Tim because as a child he had considered Coach Joe a role model now he is left with only questions and painful memories Joseph Mills was sentenced to life in prison without the possib of parole as if a heavy Stone had fallen from the Slayton brother's shoulders their mother was finally Avenged and while
the brothers console themselves with the thought that the killer will spend the rest of his days in prison they are still furious at the fact that Joseph Mills enjoyed freedom for nearly 40 years while they lost their mother Linda slayton's story her tragic death and years of Investigation have left an incredible mark on her sons Tim and Jeff Slayton two brothers who not only witnessed this tragedy but also became firsthand participants in the investigation share their experiences and feelings he kept asking us how the case was going says Tim the older of the brothers he
didn't ask specific questions he just wanted to know if there was any news on the case if there was any new evidence and I just told him that nothing had changed Tim still can't believe that his mother's killer was a man he considered a friend and respected the picture of him standing behind Joseph Mills has always reminded him that life goes on but without his mom Jeff the younger brother always thinks about how his life would have turned out if mom had been alive this tragedy has left an unbearable void in his heart that nothing
can fill despite all the hardship and suffering the Slayton Brothers try to live a full life for their mother Linda Slayton they visit her grave regularly placing fresh flowers and praying that she knows they will never forget her and will continue to fight for justice Linda slayton's story is one of fortitude of incredible endurance and of the fact that even after the most horrific losses the love and memory of loved ones lives on in the hearts of those Left Behind thanks for watching guys that was Jack subscribe to the channel there are a lot of
shocking stories [Music] ahead
